Ikeja bomb blast: 8 years after

Written by Muda Oyeniran, Akin Adewakun and Lekan Olabulo
Thursday, 28 January 2010

Nearby Oshodi was not spared: The devastation

Time, the common adage says, is a healer of wounds, the more reason men believe whatever adversity a man goes through in life, he has the greatest doctor in the four letter word- time. This perhaps explains the smiles and radiance that are gradually returning to the faces of relations and victims of the January 27, 2002, bomb blast, which rocked the city of Lagos to its foundation.
Muda Oyeniran, Akin Adewakun and Lekan Olabulo
recount the unfortunate incident eight years after.

On that fateful Sunday, residents of Ikeja and its environs were shocked to hear the thunderous sound, intermitently coming from the barracks. While some thought it could be part of an attempt to seize power from the then civilian President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, others could not even hazard a guess.

They simply fled from the ‘war zone’. When the dusts eventually settled, over a thousand residents of Lagos, eventually met what they were running away from inside the pitch-dark water canal at Oke Afa area of the state -death.

Eight years after, the smiles are gradually returning and the memory is gradually receding farther. The state government, in preparation for the 8th Anniversary has embarked on a construction of a monument site in remembrance of those who lost their lives in the mishap.

When the Nigerian Tribune visited the site on Monday afternoon , workers were battling to ensure that the construction work was completed before the Remembrance Session, held there on Wednesday, this week.

While the place was being given a new coat of paint, fumigation of the environment was also going on, with a large tomb with an epithet already in place.

Alfa Olawale Kamorudeen, a resident of the area who spoke with the Nigerian Tribune, after much prodding, stated that except the state government and some social groups that have made it a routine to visit the place every 27th of January, the site is just like others in the area, ‘it is always deserted’, he informed.

Some of the business operators and other residents of the area who spoke with the Nigerian Tribune stated that the only time any meaningful thing was done to the site was always when the anniversary of the event was around the corner.

Giving more insights into what actually led to the infamous incident, the then Commanding Officer of the command, Brig. George Kolawole Emdin, blamed the ugly episode on the lackadaisical attitude and negligence on the part of those in authority at the time.

Emdin, the then commander of the 9th Infantry Brigade and the commanding officer of the cantonment, where the bombs exploded revealed that the blast should have been pre-empted some months before it actually occurred

According to the retired Army officer , the different army formations in Lagos State as at then informed the Senate Committee on Defence and the Army Headquaters of the impending disaster at the Armour Transit Depot situated within the cantonment

According to him, the ATD had become, not only obsolete but also inundated with unused ammunition from the ECOMOG peace keeping mission to Liberia and Congo

He further stated that the Senate Committee on Defence had on its visit to the cantonment on the 4th of October 2001 been informed of the impending danger at the ATD. Brigadier Emdin (Rtd) also stated that the then Chief of Defence staff, Major General Ogomudia was also aware of the precarious situation of the ATD

He disclosed that the former Chief of Army staff had, during one of his visits to the ATD, ordered that tarpaulin be acquired to cover the littering bombs from the sun.

He also claimed that the Senate leadership during the Pius Anyim era had allegedly sent a recommendation to the Presidency to include the ATD in the budget for the following year.

Unfortunately, eight years after the incident, those concerned do not seem to have learnt their lessons. In the first quarter of 2009, another bomb also went off and killed a secondary school student, later identified as Joseph Tiem.

The explosion was said to have occurred at noon when the victim, who was working as a labourer at a building site within the cantonment, went to roast a piece of yam. Unknown to him, he was roasting the yam directly on top of some bombs buried at the ammunition transit depot where high calibre bombs are stored. Tiem, said to be a student of Government College, Gudi, Nasarawa State, was killed instantly as a bomb went off.

He was said to be on holiday and was staying with his uncle, identified as Staff Sergeant Dominic Tiem.

The explosion, which occurred despite assurances from some experts from the US who had come to detonate the buried bombs after the 2002 explosion and certified the place 95 per cent okay, once again raises the question as to whether we actually learn anything from history.

Indeed, January 27, 2002 was horrendous in the chequered history of Lagos and the entire nation. As the bomb exploded at the military cantonment, the city was thrown into confusion and disarray. Every part of the metropolis felt the pangs arising from the explosion. The farther away from the site, the more it appeared that the explosion was taking place next door. Items hung precariously in many homes crashed like a pack of cards, with buildings vibrating menacingly as a result of the impact of the explosion.

It was as if the nation was embroiled in another civil war. Thousands of residents scampering for safety ran across the major highways till the wee hours of the day, with Lagos streets depicting the ugly scenario in war-torn Somalia , Sudan and Angola , where brothers have been at each other’s jugular for decades. While some Lagosians managed to take along a few clothing as they rushed out of the residences to the streets, others merely ran for cover in near nudity.

Like in every disaster, the explosion was accompanied by dire consequences. Thousands became homeless after fleeing from their homes. Many others lost their means of livelihood. A near food crisis soon crept in, as the ubiquitous street traders, hawkers and food vendors vanished to take refuge in obscure locations. The restless city suddenly went to sleep, with virtually all the commercial outlets closing shops, especially in the popular Oshodi market, the closest civilian-dominated commercial point to the cantonment.

However, the most horrific consequence was the human causalities that resulted from the disaster. Till date, no one knows the exact number persons that lost their lives. But no fewer than one thousand of persons who got drowned in the canal at Oke-Afa, in Isolo, while running away from the impeding calamity, were given a state burial. While some families were able to reconnect after the disaster, many others are still smarting from the memories of their missing relations.

Since the disaster, many have raised some teasers on the circumstances, events and developments surrounding the horrendous incident. A lot of people are wondering if the tragedy could not have been avoided after all. They raise such teasers against the backdrop